A system and method of this type is employed in the area of automation technology, in particular in production and process automation. This frequently entails the production by the “design department” of pulse timing diagrams, also referred to as pneumatic flowcharts or as path-time diagrams, for describing machine movements. The pulse timing diagrams thus identify a desired course of machine movements. As regards the programming of stored program controls (SPCs) of an automation system, this means that error-free automated operation of the system is described with the aid of the pulse timing diagrams with no consideration being given to operating modes or the handling of errors. In modern automation solutions the pulse timing diagrams are generally produced by a design engineer. Said diagrams are then converted manually from the graphical description into programs for the stored program controls by an automation engineer responsible for producing SPC programs using, for instance, the SPC programming language AWL.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,321,603 discloses a programming device for an industrial controller, which programming device enables graphical information to be converted into a control program by way of a compiler.